Abstract
Sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) are ubiquitous anaerobic microorganisms that play significant roles in the global biogeochemical cycle. Coastal wetlands, one of the major habitats of SRB, exhibit high sulfate-reducing activity and thus play significant roles in organic carbon remineralization, benthic geochemical action, and plant-microbe interactions. Recent studies have provided credible evidence that the functional rather than the taxonomic composition of microbes responds more closely to environmental factors. Therefore, in this study, functional gene prediction based on PacBio single molecular real-time sequencing of 16S rDNA was applied to determine the sulfate-reducing and organic substrate-decomposing activities of SRB in the rhizospheres of two typical coastal wetland plants in North and South China: Zostera japonica and Scirpus mariqueter. To this end, some physicochemical characteristics of the sediments as well as the phylogenetic structure, community composition, diversity, and proportions of several functional genes of the SRB in the two plant rhizospheres were analyzed. The Z. japonica meadow had a higher dissimilatory sulfate reduction capability than the S. mariqueter-comprising saltmarsh, owing to its larger proportion of SRB in the microbial community, larger proportions of functional genes involved in dissimilatory sulfate reduction, and the stronger ability of the SRB to degrade organic substrates completely. This study confirmed the feasibility of applying microbial community function prediction in research on the metabolic features of SRB, which will be helpful for gaining new knowledge of the biogeochemical and ecological roles of these bacteria in coastal wetlands.
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Acknowledgment
We are indebted to GU Ruiting, ZHANG Xiaomei, XU Shaochun, and YUE Shidong for their cooperation in collecting samples. We thank the boatman WANG Hourong in Weihai (Shandong) for his professional service in the investigation of Swan Lake, and an anonymous private car driver in Cixi who offered generous help in taking us back to the bus station when we lost our way in the Cixi saltmarshes.
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The SMRT sequences of the full-length 16S rDNA from the sediments of the coastal wetlands studied are available online (SRA accession: PRJNA54821).
Supported by the Scientific Research Fund of the Second Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) (Nos. JB1906, JG1616, JG1910), the Zhejiang Qingshan Lake Innovation Platform for Marine Science and Technology (No. 2017E80001), the Key Projects of Philosophy and Social Sciences Research, Ministry of Education (No. 18JZD059), the National Key Technology Research and Development Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology of the China (No. 2015BAD08B01), the State Key Laboratory of Satellite Ocean Environment Dynamics (No. SOEDZZ1902), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41806136), and the Project of Long Term Observation and Research Plan in the Changjiang Estuary and the Adjacent East China Sea (LORCE, 14282)
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Song, X., Zeng, J., Zhou, Y. et al. Partial function prediction of sulfate-reducing bacterial community from the rhizospheres of two typical coastal wetland plants in China. J. Ocean. Limnol. 39, 185–197 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-019-9177-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-019-9177-7